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by Matthew Rusling
WASHINGTON, Aug. 8 (Xinhua) -- The U.S. House select committee probing the Jan. 6 riot is preparing to send a flurry of subpoenas to start gathering evidence, amid bitter partisanship and sharply different narratives of the event.
On Jan. 6, supporters of former U.S. President Donald Trump, after a rally he had held, descended on the Capitol in a protest, against the backdrop of a vicious political battle in which Trump accused then-President-elect Joe Biden of stealing the election.
The protest, later deemed an insurrection, became violent and left five dead, including a Capitol Police officer.
Democrats have denounced the Capitol riot as an attack on democracy, while Republicans have almost uniformly downplayed its implications, especially Trump's alleged role of inciting it, and dismissed the committee as a political sideshow created merely to discredit Trump's legacy.
The former president was impeached for inciting the insurrection earlier this year.
Members of the committee include seven Democrats and two Republicans, all chosen by House Speaker Nancy Pelosi after House Republican Leader Kevin McCarthy pulled out all his five selections in protest of Pelosi rejecting two of his picks for the panel.
The two lone Republican members, Liz Cheney of Wyoming and Adam Kinzinger of Illinois, are both vocal critics of Trump, and were among the 10 Republican lawmakers who voted for the impeachment.
Also split are Americans' attitudes to whether an investigation by an independent commission is needed. In a Monmouth University poll involving 802 American adults conducted in late February, 53 percent support an independent commission, while another 37 percent said the review can be done through internal investigations.
In another Harvard CAPS/Harris poll of 1,945 U.S. registered voters conducted in May, 52 percent said the riot warrants a congressional investigation, while 48 percent said a probe led by the U.S. Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI) is enough, and the divide largely falls along party lines, according to The Hill, a U.S. political website.
"The commission is simply seen as a partisan political football as the country is simply split on partisan lines in their view of the commission," said Mark Penn, director of the Harvard CAPS/Harris poll, according to The Hill.
Stephen Harrison, an office worker in the D.C. area in his 40s, told Xinhua he believes that Trump incited the Jan. 6 riot with his rhetoric that Biden had stolen the election.
Cathy Wade, an IT manager outside D.C. in her 40s, told Xinhua she believes there are many questions needed to be answered, including inquiries about a female protester who was shot dead by an unknown assailant during the riots, and the claim that police allowed rioters to enter the Capitol.
It remains unknown how long the inquiry will continue.
Christopher Galdieri, assistant professor at Saint Anselm College, told Xinhua that the panel is "in this for the long haul, and so it's very likely we'll see investigations into the causes and instigators of the attack on the Capitol."
"Whether any of that leads to prosecutions is unclear," Galdieri said. "Congress can't (prosecute anyone) on its own, but it can establish an evidentiary record and turn that over to the appropriate prosecutors and law enforcement agencies."
During its first hearing on July 27, the committee heard four police officers recounting their experiences when rioters beat and crushed them on their way into the building on Jan. 6.
So far, several hundred rioters have been indicted for illegal activities, and 500 criminal charges have been filed against rioters in various courts.
Charges include attacking officers with chemical spray, carrying a baseball bat among others. Enditem
(Xinhua correspondents Yang Shilong, Deng Xianlai contributed to the story)
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